Looking to prevent people from voting? Make it hard to get drivers' licenses.

Betty Andrews, Iowa-Nebraska NAACP President, speaks in opposition of House File 516, a bill that would require Iowans to show identification at the polls, during a public hearing on Monday, Mon. 6, 2017, at the Iowa Capitol, in Des Moines.
Kelsey Kremer/The Register

Iowa makes it too hard to get a license and that can deter voters

The Iowa Department of Transportation's driver's license station in Des Moines(Photo: Rekha Basu)

Editor's note: This column was updated from a previous online version to clarify that some forms of ID allowed for voting in Iowa starting in 2019 do not include photos. The Iowa Secretary of State's Office provides free voter IDs to Iowans who do not have driver's licenses.

If you wanted to prevent people from voting, you could:

Make robocalls, giving out the wrong election date or polling station. It’s been done by campaigns targeting voters from the other party.

Improperly purge tens of thousands of people from the voter registration rolls as St. Louis did in 2000 without notifying them.

Pass needless Voter ID laws, requiring an ID to vote, as Iowa has done, becoming fully enforced next year. This November, voters will be asked to show them, but may sign an oath verifying their identity instead.

Make getting a driver's license — the major acceptable type of ID — unduly burdensome. That can especially prevent voting by low-income or young people, who change addresses often, or older people, who can't easily get to driver's license stations, or newcomers who may not have all the documentation required to get a license.

Iowa's done that too. Take it from Allison Engel, who recently moved back here from California with her husband, Scott Kirkpatrick. They wanted Iowa licenses. Drivers who recently moved to Iowa must provide two proofs of address through voter or vehicle registration, utility or mortgage bill or rent receipt. But if you're married or sharing a home, as Engel learned, only one person's name is listed on the cable or water bill. The other is out of luck with one piece of proof.

Also, Engel was told at the Iowa Department of Motor Vehicles she needed two proofs of her Social Security number. Melissa Spiegel, the director of Motor Vehicles, says that's wrong — only one is necessary. A DOT pamphlet says the same. Engel took her Medicare card, which has her Social Security number on it. But, she says, a DMV employee wouldn't accept the card on the grounds that the federal government will soon be issuing new Medicare cards without Social Security numbers on them.

Wrong again, says Spiegel, who said it's a federal government directive not to use Medicare cards for proof of Social Security.

If you got your Social Security card as a teen and kept it through name changes, you'll also need proof you're the same person.

Engel's husband had to make four visits to a station before getting his Iowa license. He thought he'd need to take the written test when he went to the Iowa Driver’s License Station on Euclid Avenue known as River Place. After waiting to see someone, he was directed to the DOT main office in Ankeny for the test. There, he was told he didn't need the test, but would need two proofs of his Social Security number. He returned with his W-2 forms, only to be told they had to have an Iowa address.

I, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised when the DOT recently reminded me in a postcard two months ahead of time that my driver's license would be expiring. Even better, the card said I could renew online and listed the web address. All I needed, according to that site, was my current license or ID, and a credit or debit card for the $1.50 processing fee.

I filled out the information, only to have NOT ELIGIBLE pop up in big orange letters. It said I had renewed online four years ago (I had no recollection of that), and couldn't do it again. A call to the DOT informed me I had visited a DOT kiosk to renew, which in the agency's view, is renewing online, begging the question, why even go to a kiosk? Spiegel explained that neither the online service nor the 24 self-service kiosks can do vision tests, which are necessary every other renewal.

So, I went to a packed Euclid Avenue station known as River Place on a Tuesday afternoon, drawing number 276 from the machine. They were on 210 and it was moving slowly. At one point when it moved, a customer jumped up and let out a cheer. "It was 70 when I got here!" exclaimed Elaine Barker. "I can't tell you how thrilled I am!" She said she'd been waiting an hour and a half.

Others chimed in. Barker said an older man was there earlier to get his Iowa license after moving from Missouri and waited two-and-a-half hours before being told he needed more proof of his address.

At some point, a DOT employee demanded everyone's attention to announce there would be no driving tests or vehicle authorizations at that site, which isn't specified on any sign. He also said we could pay the fees by debit or credit card, but a debit card would incur a service charge and a U.S. Bank Visa debit card would be rejected, as would American Express. And, "Our system that verifies the status of non-citizens is not working." If you weren't American, he said, "we can't help you." Nor did he know when they could.

This all seems a bit much. I at least have wheels, a long-time home and job and flexible enough hours. I've never changed my name. For all that, I was still foiled in my first two attempts to get a license, the latter time because I didn't bring a Social Security document. What about people with disabilities, without cars, or who've been forced to move around a lot? What about homeless people who want to vote?

Spiegel apologized for the inconveniences and was ready to personally contact anyone who suffered because of them. DOT spokeswoman Andrea Henry says there used to be a greeter at River Place who answered questions about services at the outset, and the agency is working on adding a kiosk that does that along with dispensing numbers. She said staff are asked at busy times to stop and go around the room to talk to people. This year, when they're randomly issuing some eight-year licenses to avoid all expiring at once, a record half million licenses are up for renewal.

I won't claim Iowa driver's license requirements were intended to limit voting by some people, even if that's the impact. What I will say, two months before Election Day, is that every patriotic American should be encouraging every eligible voter to get out and vote. And part of that is helping ensure they have all the proof they'll need.

Rekha Basu is an opinion columnist for The Des Moines Register. Contact: rbasu@dmreg.com Follow her on Twitter @RekhaBasu and at Facebook.com/ColumnistRekha. Her book, "Finding Her Voice: A collection of Des Moines Register columns about women's struggles and triumphs in the Midwest," is available at ShopDMRegister.com/FindingHerVoice